Bev's Classroom cupboard

2014-02-26T12:38:00.000-08:00

It is time to get into the wonderful world of writing. For alot of people it is a frustrating experience. Sometimes they just can not think of the ideas and other times they have the ideas, but do not know where to start or how to develop the story line.

There is a wonderful book called 6 + 1 Traits of Writing. This book is written by Ruth Culham. If you want more indepth understanding about these traits, borrow the book from your local library. The six traits are:
       Ideas and content
       Organization
       Voice
        Word Choice
        Sentence Fluencey
         Conventions

The six traits is not a model for the writer to follow step by step, but rather a means to help the writer create a better final result.

Ideas and content is that stage where the writer brainstorms topics in any format.

Organization is where the writer takes all of their ideas from Ideas and content and creates a structure to the story with the ideas. The writer uses this stage to group the ideas into the various sections of the final writing. This is also the stage where the writer creates a thesis statement, the leads (proving the thesis) and the conclusion.

Voice is the uniqueness of the writer - what makes it Stephen King verses Bev Ascah, or Shakespeare. This is a hard concept for new writer to grasp and develop. Remember it is not what is written but how it is written. Are you a writer that makes it very first person, or someone who writes makes it very third person - as if you are writing for someone else. No matter what kind of writer you are striving to have quality voice, will help the reader find the piece honest and sincere. A good writer wants to strive to make sure that what they write does not sound like a list of facts.

Word Choice helps to develop the writers voice - are the word choices very simple or are they longer more complicated words. The words should sound natural to the reader, helping to make an accurate mental picture. If the writer, is writing for a young audience, and is using long complicated words, then the reader is lost and the word choice is not appropriate. We often see this problem when students discover the joys of a thesaurus - the words may have the right meaning in the right spot, but do not make sense with the audience or even with the writers voice.

Sentence Fluency is one I find easy to do - I read what I have written outloud. If I find that the sentences flow easily together throughout the piece then I know I have sentence fluency. Sentences should fit together nicely, sounding natural and making sense. The reader should not have to re-read to understand.
Quality sentence fluency also includes using a variety of sentence lengths and patterns. We do not natural speak in sentences that are all the same length, which is why when writing we need to do the same thing. Short sentences may be used for effect - to emphasize a point.

Conventions - good old fashion grammar. Conventions focus on the punctuation, capitalization, spelling, grammar etc. Good grammar allows the reader to appreciate the story or message of the writing. Good grammar helps the understanding and flow of the piece, and appreciation of not only the piece but also the writer.

As you are helping your student to become a better writer, make sure you have specific goals in mind. With your student in mind brain storm a list them of goals you want to work on and exactly how you are going to work on them. Make sure you give yourself dates to check and double check so that you stay on track.

Have fun.

2014-02-24T08:29:00.000-08:00

You have a student who just can not sit still - thinking ADD - please don't, there are so many people ID with ADD when really it might be is just that their intelligence strength is in the area of bodily-kinesthetic and they think better if they are moving. These students have the ability to work well with objects involving both fine and gross motor skills. These students learn best by doing.

When it comes to math, it is easy to help these students - give them manipulatives - by physically using the objects helps them learn the concept. This does not mean that they need to have the manipulatives, it just makes it easier.

If your student struggles sitting still - like lots of us try having them sit on a large exercise ball - worked great in my LD class. I have students who were ID as ADD, but they could focus just fine if I let them sit on a ball, stand at their desk - I didn't care as long as they got their work done, and done well and neat.

For the joys of creative writing, if your student does not like writing the story, combine it with drama. Have the student physically move about to tell the story. At first you can scribe the story, but as the student gets better at creating the story, have them act out the first part and then dot and jot the story out. It does not have to be written out completely in the beginning, just get the ideas down. Once the ideas are written the next steps are easier, because the writer can now envision the story in his mind.

Take this idea a step further, by having the student create a puppet show out of their story.

Remember if you have a student who is very physical, do not be upset that they are moving, just don't let it get in the way of learning for themselves or for others.

For my next posting I will begin looking at the traits of writing. While writing can come naturally for some of us, we still need the structure to make sure that we do not forget anything. See you next time.

2014-02-20T12:03:00.000-08:00

Well I am back with a quicky today. Trying to help your child with math facts in a fun way - Go to a local store that sells Dungeons and Dragons stuff and pick up a couple of dice with more than 6 sides. If you are practicing addition pick a number between 100 and 200. (I am trying to write this while watching the Gold women's hockey for the Olympics - not easy) What you do is simply roll the two dice, and add them together. You then add that to your running total. Who ever reaches your predetermined number wins. Example. Johnny rolls a 8 and a 4, adds them together and gets 12. One his next turn Johnny rolls 2 and 8 adds them together to get 10. Johnny then adds the 10 to the 12 to get 22. The players keep doing this until he or the other player reaches the predetermined number.

You can do the same thing, except with multiplication. If you are doing multiplication choose a larger number, simply because it is faster to get to the predetermined number. You are going to multiply the numbers on the dice, but then add that product to the running total.

To take this idea on step further, start with a number like 150, roll your two dice, and subtract the sum of the two dice, from your running total. It just makes the practice a little more fun.

We won - GOLD - Go Canada Go!!!!

Let's get onto the musical intelligence

2014-02-10T16:14:00.002-08:00

The student whose strongest area of intelligence is in the area of music, is the student who is always going around singing - that's me. This area of intelligence develops earlier in life then any other area of intelligence. Those who have high levels of musical or rhythmic intelligence hear the tone, rhythms and sound patterns in the environment.

For this student, poetry that has a rhythm is a natural, while other poetry does not sound right, like something is a missed. Use that natural ability to help them with the areas of school work that they struggle with. Have they got a word that they struggle to spell - make it into a sign song; ex. or - an -ge, break the words into the natural syllables within the word. ex under - stand - able.

Need help memorizing those silly math facts - there are multiple songs out there designed just for that - helping people learn those facts. It is a fun way to learn those facts. When it comes to fractions show them how music is full of math - whole notes, half notes etc etc etc. It makes that subject more relevant to the student and therefore easier to learn because there is a reason.

2014-02-03T09:30:00.001-08:00

Well folks I am getting better here at posting it has only been a couple of days - focus focus focus!!

Let us examine that visual - spatial intelligence. The student with a stronger visual-spatial intelligence then other areas of intelligences will find art, mapping and etc to be easier and more enjoyable. We all enjoy doing that which we find easier. But how do you use this strength in helping the student in other areas of their educational life. These are students who can see the visual world and recreate even without that world in front of them. An example would be the child that can draw a more accurate map of her neighbourhood then the rest of the class, or is putting together jigsaw puzzles that way above their age. The student is able to visually see the whole picture even though they do not have the actual picture right beside them.

This student will find geometry very easy as they can see the whole picture. This student will enjoy strategy games as they find seeing the whole picture easier then people like me. The question is how do you help this kind of person in school when they are having difficulties.

In language spelling should not be a problem, but writing a story maybe. This is because they see the whole story, but by the time they get to the end of the story they have forgotten the ending OR they see the main details but forget the smaller details. These students do not really need the story map I have talked about because they can already see the story. To help them create a more complete story have them point form every little idea they can think of for the story. After they have all the ideas group the ideas with the different parts of the story - beginning, middle and end. I have used highlighter, one colour for each part of the story. The students enjoy it. Reassure the students that they can add more details as they go.

Once they have all the ideas (or most of them written down) they can start actually writing the story. This kind of student may balk at this step - their logic, and it is sound, that they know what they want to happen in their story. Help them understand this is to help them make sure they remember everything that they want to put in the story.

For the area of math, if the student has difficult understanding the concept, bring out the concrete materials, they like to see the visual. Once they have the concept they should have no more difficulties because they can build on what they have already know and understand.

Till next time - have a good day.

What other kinds of intelligences are there

2014-01-30T11:49:00.001-08:00

Ok folks we have looked at the two intelligences that have the easiest times at school - and can actual be bored, so they don't do as well as they could.
The other five areas of intelligences are: existential intelligence, inter.intrapersonal intelligence, bodily - kinesthetic intelligence, visual - spatial intelligence and musical/ naturalist intelligence. The other day I mentioned that we would be looking at the individual whose strongest intelligence area is visual-spatial, but before we go further on this area let us review exactly what intelligence is.

My son has come up with a wonderful view on our mental abilities - KIS.
          K stands for the knowledge you know. That is the stuff you know and forget. That would be like you know where you placed your keys today, but tomorrow you forgot where you put them - it is simply knowledge.
           I stands for intelligence. Intelligence is the ability to understand abstract concepts. You are born with that, it is not something you can gain or loss (unless you have brain injury) This is the area that we have been talking about for the last few postings.
           S stands for smarts. Smarts is how well you put those two together, how well you use your intelligence with the knowledge that you know to accomplish something.

So back to the intelligences. Let us remember that we are talking about that naturally occurring ability to understand certain areas. We are talking about which area is the strongest in an individual. Just because someone is strong in bodily - kinesthetic intelligence it does not mean that you have another super athletic person, it simple means that is their area of intelligence that is the strongest,

I have gotten side tracked here but hopefully my ramble has been enlightening.   I will get back to the viusal-spatial intelligence next time.

2014-01-27T10:17:00.002-08:00

A lot has happened since my last post. I really must get more disciplined in posting. Since December 11th, we have had Christmas, and my area of the world had a snow storm. I was one of the privileged few that went without power for a week - right over Christmas. It was definitely a Christmas to remember. My kids are telling the world that it was the Christmas that mom was trying to freeze them out. We did survive, a couple of friends lent us generators, (2) and one of those friends not only cooked our Christmas dinner they brought it up to the house for us - we were very touched.

Now where were we; the math - logical intelligence. The individual who is strongest in this area of intelligence finds creating stories very frustrating. (The cow jumped over the moon what more do you need thinks this kind of mind.) To help this individual help them create a story path to start off with. It is a very structured process so helps make sure that they get all the points.   Another suggestion is that in the beginning have the writer write about something that has actually happened in their life. That is exactly what I have done here. Realize that the first five steps are done in point form, don't worry about full sentences, grammar or spelling, that is what step 6 is for.
Step 1 -Create a character - Bev - a woman
                      1. mother, slender, wearing black pants, white shirt, hair tied back, lunch bag and purse in her hand
Step 2 - Create a problem - trying to get to work, and the car will not start
                       1. puts the key in the ignition, turns, and nothing
Step 3 - Create a solution to the problem - gets the car fixed
                        1. have starter replace, and pays the bill
Step 4 - Create 2 to 5 events between the problem and the solution
   1, tried pushing
   - thinking the starter was out of alignment tried pushing the car a bit to see if it would help - no luck
                         2. tried to jump start the car
                                 - calls friend to jump start, thinking it might be the battery - no luck
                         3. call tow truck to take it to the garage
                                 - give up and call a tow truck to take the car to the garage
                         4. call a friend to drive her to work in the mean time
- ask the friend to drive her to work
Step 5 - add details to each of the above steps.
for the sake of this I have written these details in this colour above.

Step 6 - Write the above steps in story order in full sentences.

This should give you a good idea of what I am talking about. With the younger students, to give it a visual I actually draw a road on the paper or blackboard, and put the first four steps up. Think of the process as sandwiching it - the beginning, the end and then everything else in the middle.

I hope this helps. Next time we will be examining visual - spatial intelligence. This individual has the capacity to see the visual world and recreate aspects of it, even without the object right there - definitely not my strength.

2013-12-11T12:37:00.000-08:00

Last time we discussed the logical - mathematical intelligence. When an individual is stronger in the logical area, language areas may become their least favourite subject. This does not mean that they are not good in languages it simply means that math and sciences are easier for them.

So the question becomes if your student finds the logical end of school easy, how can you use this strength to help them with the other areas of their school work - logically of course.

For a student who has difficulty seeing the whole story or essay in their mind as they write it, creating a logical step by step plan can really help. This method can drive those that are natural writers because their minds can see exactly how their story or essay is going to develop. To create this step by step plan for a creative story, have the student follow these steps.
1. Create a character
2. Decide what the character's problem is.
3. Decide the opening scene where the character discovers that he has a problem.
3. Then go to the end of the story and decide what the finish of the story is going to be.
4. Now the middle of the story - decide on two or three things that happen to the character that will help the character solve his problem.

You now have the story laid out in point form. Don't expect this to be easy the first few times, but as your student gets the hang of it, they will find it easier - this is the method I use for writing anything (speeches, books, posts, lesson plans etc). It helps me make sure that I have touches everything, and that it makes logical sense.

Now it is time to take those points and write in the padding of the story. At first your student will have a very bare bone story - that is ok, at least they have a story and developing the tools to actually write a story. Next time I will actually write a short story (about grade 4) using this method.

Logical- mathematical

2013-12-02T08:30:00.001-08:00

Dec 2nd, 2013
     Welcome to the last month of the year. This post is going to start looking at the form of intelligence that everyone tends to see as an indication that the person is really really smart - logical-mathematical intelligence. I would love to know why people think that the person who is really good in maths and sciences is any smarter then two of my daughters who are gifted in art. They can draw circles around me when it comes to visual arts - I just have no intelligence in that area.
     This intelligence allows the individual to have the ability to recognize patterns with abstract symbols, and to see the relationships. They also find solving problems easier then other people do. They are often are able to see a solution before actually working our the problem.
This can cause them problems in school, because they need to show all the steps in math, to get the marks and to develop good habits; but they don't understand why they should because they got the right answer, so why do all the work. Does this sound familiar, trust me I have heard it a million times from students, why should they show all the steps. I give them two reasons - the marks and to develop good habits. I have even shown them math problems from higher grades to show them how those boring steps really needed. I also try to explain that they decrease the chances of mistakes if they write down all the steps.
    Unfortunately for a lot of students, people whose logical mathematical is strong, tend to be seen as being very smart, simply because standardized test tend to focus on math skills.
     On my next post I will talk about various ways you can help you very logical student use their skills to be better in other areas of they school life.

2013-11-19T12:40:00.000-08:00

     The first form of intelligence that we discussed a couple of weeks ago (where does time go) was that of verbal - linguistic intelligence. As we remember when a student best learns in this method, they prefer reading and verbally communication. This does not always work well with the higher maths, that become more abstract then the bases. As a young student it is easy to verbally explain adding and subtracting, but what happens when we change it from adding and subtracting to negatives and positives.
      If you have a student that prefers to learn in a verbal - linguistic method, you need to approach the more abstract concepts, with a lot of step by step methods, a lot of practice and walking they them through the steps orally. This does not mean that they can not learn and understand the more abstract concepts it just means that to help them more easily understand these concepts you need to approach them from a verbal - linguistic approach. As these students are strong in the area of writing, having them writing the definitions, and the steps will help them with grasping the concepts.
     Till next time, have a good day and learn something new each day.

2013-11-04T15:02:00.001-08:00

Hi I just found this blog. http://algebra1course.wordpress.com/2012/08/10/1-graphing-quadratic-functions/

This is a blog that is lesson by lesson on quadratic functions - algebra. It looks excellent, so if you need a little or lot of extra help with this stuff here is a place to go.
You may have to copy and past the above address into your address bar. I tried the link a couple of times and it always worked. Hope this helps.

2013-11-04T09:17:00.000-08:00

Good morning
It is November 4th, and here in Canada it is Movember - the month where we remember men's health issue. It is a shame we have to make a point of designating a specific month to the issue. Let us also remember Remembrance Day - remembering all those who fought for a more peaceful world, yesterday, today and in the future.

On to today's discussion. For the next few postings I am going to talk about the Multiple Intelligences. We all have strengths in our learning processes. This does not give the student an excuse to not become better in all areas, it is just helps us as parents, teachers and students to have a better understanding on why we are not always as strong in certain areas as other people are. An example - I can not draw, and probability never will be able to but boy can two of my girls draw - one of them does the art work for my books. On the other hand I am very good in the world of logical - mathematical intelligence, it just makes sense to me.

There are seven different identified intelligences. One is not better then another, and remember that these postings are here only to help us better understand our learning styles and processes. The idea here is simply to show which form of intelligence is strongest for you, compared to the other intelligences.

The first intelligences we are going to examine is that of verbal-linguistic.
     Verbal-linguistic intelligence is where the student finds reading, writing, listening and speaking the easier areas of school work. They enjoy doing this kind of activity more then the other areas. These students would rather curl up with a book then play sports. For the extra curricular they enjoy the being involved with
plays in one way shape or form.
     They tend to do fairly well in school as the verbal (whether written or spoken) is our normal form of communication is the classroom. These people are sensitive to the sounds and meanings of words and typically very good at decoding words. Due to this these students are seen as being very smart, because school task and tests tend to emphasize this form of communication. This can confuse parent and student when the other marks are not as high.
     The kind of activities that this student would enjoy and could use for assignments would be such things as giving oral presentations, create a newspaper about the assignment, develop a debate about the issue.

Next day we will examine the logical - mathematical intelligence.

Till next time.

2013-10-20T13:09:00.003-07:00

News Flash !!!!

There has been research done in the UK to examine the effects of regular sleep on student behaviour and success. This next piece will not surprise any parent or even university student.

It was discovered that students who had regular bed times and sufficient number of hours of sleep each night, did better in school - in both areas of behaviour and school work. The research looked not only at students behaviour and school work before the research started, but also after wards. Those students who were having difficulty with behaviour / school work, were put on a regular bed time schedule. Within days the students' behaviour, ability to stay focused and school work improved.

As a teacher with more then 30 years teaching , a mother of four, and someone who has university degrees, the results are not surprising at all. If you do not have enough sleep your body can not work as well as you need it to.

What scares me is that thought that we actually had to have this research done, to prove something that any parent already knew.

Good night, have a good nights sleep.

2013-04-18T14:03:00.001-07:00

I think I just might scream here! I just heard about a family with a little girl who has diabetes entering junior kindergarten. The public school has politely said that they will not be tracking her sugars and can not guarantee that the local nurse will be there when she needs her needles, as she has several other schools. In my eyes that means that either the parents have to sit in the classroom all the time OR the child does not go to the local public school - I thought all children in the world have the right to an education - do believe that it is part of the UN 's statements about the rights of children.
This family will be putting their child in a private school, but what happens if the family can not afford a private school. Right now as you can image I am screaming!!!!!!!

June 3rd

It is now June the 3rd, and the family is still trying to solve the problem. We came up with the idea that if they work with their doctors, they should be able to ask the school for a medical IEP. This individual educational plan, would simple state that due to medical reasons, this child has to have a educational aid with her at all times. Once that IEP has been created the school would get the extra funds to allow for the ED. Here is hoping it will work.

Respect - follow up

2012-10-16T11:37:00.000-07:00

You can tell that this respect thing is really bugging me. Mya Kagan is quoted as saying that respect is treating others the way you want to be treated. I agree with this, except that some people do not even respect themselves. So let me extend this by saying the respect is connected to those behaviours that do not injure yourself, others or the environment in any way shape or form.

Therefore, if we do not take care of our belongings, then we are not respecting our property. We can also extend that by saying that if we do not take care of our things, we not only disrespecting our things, but by extension we are not respecting our selves either. This applies to everything we do and encounter. Do we respect the laws, others, the environment, our jobs.

When we respect something, we treat it the way we would want to be treated, no matter how we are treated, whether we like the person, job, law, or whatever. We need to get back to including respect in our everyday lives.

I am sure I will be writing more in the future about this topic. Please do not hesitate to add comments.

Bev

Respect, is missing in the world these days

2012-10-16T11:05:00.000-07:00

I was out for dinner with my personal kids and their dad. I did not like what I was watching happening around the table - no respect. I asked my oldest something - the two of us were talking and her father interrupted the two of us, by answering for her. I immediately informed him that she could answer for herself. It was the next thing that threw me - my youngest told me, her mother, that I was being rude, for interrupting her dad. Trust me, I quietly informed her that it was her dad that was being rude by first interrupting my oldest and myself. The whole event threw me for a loop, and I spent the rest of the evening and this morning in deep thought.

When I got to my computer I got hunting online to see what other people thought about the subject of respect. It is a very hard thing to define and teach. We may be bending over backwards at home to teach the concept, but the rest of the world is fighting us on this one. I did find the following article that did help, and I thought everyone else might like - so enjoy. If you have any ideas let me know.

I would also like to add, not interrupting others, not arguing just for the sake of arguing. If you are capability enough to help, then help. Pay your share of costs when doing things with your friends.

I found this original list at http://activerain.com/blogsview/1273394/respect-what-does-it-look-like-and-sound-like-to-your-clients-see-if-you-have-the-same-perspective

Take care until next time.

Be

2012-10-09T13:31:00.004-07:00

Canadian Thanksgiving is over, and most of us ate more then we should of.   Do you have a child whose language needs a little help? Here are some ideas.
     1. When you are in a room, ask them to tell you in a full sentence what room they are in. You might be surprised at the answer. I have been in the kitchen and told we were in breakfast. To the little guy that was the room he was in - he ate breakfast in that room, so therefore that was breakfast. He was thinking in concept only.
     2. Gather a bunch of pictures, and create a story about what is happening in the picture.
     3. If you are working with the sound blends - 'th', remind the child, that is the only sound that they can stick their tongue out at you. Another sound blend is 'sh', the tongue is in exactly in the same position as when we say 's'. The only difference is the position of the lips. For the sound of 's', the lips are slightly opened and pulled back, while for 'sh' the lips are pushed forward. Try it several times on your own, until you are comfortable with the difference, before working with your student.
     4. Puppets are great tools, as the students can pretend to become something other then what they are.
     5. The important part is that you and your student are having fun.

Tricks to learning those math facts

2012-10-02T12:15:00.000-07:00

Boring, boring, boring. I have heard it many times. Learning those math facts can be very boring. Here are a few ideas to help with it.
    1. Play math wars. Divide a deck of cards in half, giving a half to each of the two players. Tens and face cards are worth 10. At go each player turns over their top card, the first person to add the two together correctly gets both cards. The game is over when one person has all the cards.It helps if there is a referee for disputed sums.
    2. Shoot for the stars. You will need paper, pencil and two dice.This is a great game for the little guys. Choose a number between 50 and 100. Divide the paper in half, writing each player's name is a section. The first player throws both dice, adds the two dice together and puts the total on their half of the paper. The next player then does the same thing.
     On the second round the players roll the dice, add the two dice together and then add that total to the last number on their paper. Ex., If on the first roll I got a 5 and a 2, I would write down 7. Then, if on the next roll I got a 6 and a 4 I would add those two numbers together, get 10 and then add that 10 to the 7 I already have and get 17. This process would continue until one of the players reaches the chosen number.
     3. Play crib. Teach your child how to play crib. It is a great game for practicing addition, up to 31.

Have fun

It is that time of year again.

2012-09-25T12:30:00.001-07:00

It is that time of year again. The kids are back in class, and we are wondering what happened to the last year - when did those kids get so big and grown up.

Yes folks they are a year older, but they still need our guidance and help to become the best they can be. We must encourage our students to be their best. That does not mean that they must get perfect - there is no such thing. We must help our students learn how to write paper, research, do math, be socially responsible and much more. The biggest thing they must learn is that there is someone out there that loves them and respects them. In learning that, it will help them learn to love others unconditionally and to give respect no matter what.

This world is in a mess right now. The economy has us struggling through a second great depression, the environment needs cleaning up and parts of this world are already into the beginning of world war three. We must ask ourselves what can we do for our kids. It is not their generation that has to fix it, nor can we blame that last generation for the mess we are in. Sticking our heads into the sand will also not solve the problems. We must work as a team to make this world into a world where everyone can live together fairly peacefully, with everyone having housing and food.

My question to you is what are you going to teach your children during this school year?

2012-05-04T14:19:00.001-07:00

I have a question for all of you. What are we teaching our children? When we make things easy for your children, and protect them from disappointment - what are we really teaching them. When we make life easy - such as dish washers, driving them everywhere, giving them everything they want, without having to work for it, what are we teaching them. When we don't get involved to make this a better place, when we don't help others what are we teaching our children? When we yell and scream, because someone cuts us off in traffic, what are we teaching our children? - should I keep going.
Always think, what are my actions teaching my children, remember they learn a whole lot more from our actions then from our words.

2012-05-04T12:51:00.000-07:00

Spring is here - sort of, and the end of school for the year is right around the corner, or so it feels. My opinions today come back to whether or not students in grades 1 to 8 should be failed. While making the decision should not be taken lightly, I am a believer in failing students. Why, because at this age it is a good time to learn how to fail, and how to recover from a failure. The older we get the harder it is to teach the old dog a new trick.
I have students coming into my center in grade 9 terrified, because they do not know how to deal with the concept that if they do not do their work and try hard, they will fail the grade and have to repeat it. They do not know how to deal with it. It is our fault as the adults of today for them not knowing how to deal with failure. In our attempt to protect them from the pain we have only set them up for greater pain. We have also let them down because we have not taught them how to fail and how to recover from it. Those students who are most successful in school are those who are involved in a discipline activity after school - such as sports, dance etc. Why, because they have not only learned about discipline and teamwork, they have also learned about how to recover from failure. The little hockey players first lessons consists of the coaches pushing them down onto the ice, and then telling them how to get up.
When we learn that failing is ok, we learn to have faith in ourselves, to try again and how to be successful. Please understand that when you are choosing to have your child repeat a grade, that decision has to be taken very carefully and all aspects of the child's life must be considered. I strongly support repeating a grade when the student is really not grasping the concepts taught that year.
I would love to hear your opinion on this issue.

Until next time.

2012-03-18T09:14:00.000-07:00

Good afternoon folks
The winter that was not, (at least for us in Southern Ontario), has gone, and we are having double digit temperatures. I have not been working on this blog, due to the fact I have been extremely busy working on my book. There is now a whole series of Castle Wall workbooks (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division) on Amazon. Coming out shortly is a book full of addition games, that the only thing you need in addition to the book is a couple of deck of cards.

addition workbooks

2012-02-19T13:19:00.000-08:00

Castle Walls - additionIf you are looking for a fun way to help your student learn their addition facts, go to Amazon.com and look up castle walls - addition. This is a simple game, that helps to reinforce a student's addition facts. Within the next few days there will also be a version of the workbook for subtraction, multiplication and division.
My students enjoy playing the game, and I have often sent home copies for the parents to play with their children.

Click on the title to go directly to the Amazon site for this book.

2012-01-26T13:57:00.000-08:00

      The new year is here, and it is time to help our students learn how to fail - yes folks I said learn how to fail. Failure is part of life - you don't get the job you wanted, or the girl, or you don't win the game you were depending on.
     How do we learn to fail - simple, fail. Give your child spelling dictations, or math quizzes, or or or. The point is that when we fail, we learn that it is ok to fail, as long as we learn from the failure. In the elementary school of Ontario, the belief is that to fail a child is damaging to their self esteem. But please tell me what happens when they get to high school, where the teachers do fail the students, they have to otherwise they students do not have the necessary knowledge for the next course in that subject matter. This is when it is very hard on the individual, because they have had little experience of failing.
     When your child does fail on a test, do the sandwich routine, point out when they did right, examine what when wrong, and then point out again what went right. Concentrate on the fact that failing is not great, but that it is not the end of the world, and the important part is learning from it. Figure out how the individual can be more successful next time, create the plan and follow through.
    There is no great, or not so great leader that was successful with everything they have done. Check into the creator of Second Cup. He had gotten to the point of living on the street as an alcoholic. This would be the greatest level of failure. He got himself organized pulled up his socks so to speak, started Second Cup as a small business, and now it is what it is. He learned from his mistakes, and has become a success.
Help your child be successful, but teaching them how to fail and get back up

2011-12-31T11:16:00.000-08:00

It is News Years Eve and I promised that I would take a day off of work - yeah right. I am working on a book for the publisher, and I happened to be on the internet when I found this web site. It is a nice list of books organized by grade level. They are organized several different ways - grade level, alphabetical order by book and then by author. I just love this site, now that I found it.

http://home.comcast.net/~ngiansante/index.html

Enjoy this site, and have a happy new year.